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Pol Espargaro: Moto2™ World Champion

Pol Espargaro’s 2013 success signals his first title win in the World
Championship. The 22-year-old Spaniard becomes the fourth Moto2™ World
Champion and the 107th different rider to win a title in the history of the World Championship.

The younger brother of MotoGP™ racer Aleix Espargaro made his World
Championship debut as a wildcard in 2006, at the Circuit de Barcelona
Catalunya situated barely ten minutes’ drive from his Granollers home.
From 27th on the grid, Pol would finish that 125 race in 13th position to become the youngest ever rider to score points in the World Championship, barely one week after his 15th
birthday. Covering for the injured Andrea Iannone for the final six
races, Espargaro impressed with sixth place in the Valencia
season-closer. His first full season came in 2007, switching from Derbi
to Aprilia equipment and achieving a first podium finish at Estoril as
he finished only two tenths of a second behind winner Hector Faubel.

Espargaro switched back to a Derbi bike for his final three 125
seasons. In 2008 came a further three podium finishes plus his
career-first pole position in Barcelona. He would finish fourth in the
standings in 2009, then going one better to manage third overall as he
missed the podium on only five occasions in 2010. Marc Marquez would win
the title before both he and Espargaro jumped up to Moto2™ for 2011.
Espargaro’s first campaign in the intermediate category was with FTR
machinery and would prove to be difficult, not scoring a podium until
Indianapolis before following up with another top three result in
Malaysia. He ended a somewhat low-key year 13th in the championship, switching to a Kalex for a title assault in 2012.

Remembered for the battle between Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez, the
2012 Moto2™ World Championship would not be without its controversy.
Espargaro would rack up no less than eight pole positions and four race
victories, including Round 2 at Jerez which was red-flagged. The other
three wins came at Silverstone, MotorLand Aragón and Phillip Island,
with the Australian success being nothing short of dominant as he
clinched victory by the massive margin of nearly 17 seconds. However,
there was a contentious incident in Barcelona when Espargaro crashed
following a chop from Marquez who was recovering from an incident of his
own. He would eventually end the year as runner-up and 56 points in
arrears of Marquez.

A favourite for the title in 2013, Espargaro started off as he meant to
continue by winning in floodlit Qatar but only after an entertaining
battle with Scott Redding. He would not retain the championship lead for
long, crashing at the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas two weeks
later. A third place in Jerez was followed by a crash at Le Mans and
fourth at Mugello, then celebrating back-to-back wins at Barcelona and
Assen. The low point was eighth at Silverstone as title rival Redding
romped away to a popular home victory, but victories at Misano and
Phillip Island were more than welcome. The turning point was qualifying
in Australia, when Redding crashed and fractured his left wrist which
left the Englishman on the sidelines for a race.

Espargaro clinched the title at Motegi on 27th October,
winning the Japanese Grand Prix after closest rivals Redding and Tito
Rabat were involved in a first-lap multiple collision. In 2014, he will
step up to MotoGP™ with Monster Yamaha Tech3 and is expected to be in
contention for podium finishes as he partners Bradley Smith.

A few facts about Pol Espargaro:
- Espargaro becomes the sixth Spanish rider to win the intermediate
class world title, joining: Sito Pons (1988 and 1989), Dani Pedrosa
(2004 and 2005), Jorge Lorenzo (2006 and 2007), Toni Elias (2010) and
Marc Marquez (2012)
- Espargaro has won the title by recovering from a 38-point deficit to Scott Redding following the 11th race of the year at Silverstone
- From the 16 Moto2™ races so far in 2013, Espargaro has had most pole
positions (five), most podium finishes (ten) and most race wins (six)